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Research, Write, Communicate | Persuasive Writing Information Gathering


Key Concept

You have chosen an issue for an interesting and convincing persuasive essay. You must understand the issue before you can take a position and support your position with evidence. When an issue is controversial, you want to gather the most accurate and reliable information possible to convince your audience.

Do you know how to gather accurate and reliable information? One strategy is to use a variety of sources, such as books, encyclopedias, databases, and the Internet. You can use keyword searches to find information in library catalogs, databases, and Web sites. Think critically about any source and always evaluate the credibility of a Web site.

After you locate credible sources, you must capture relevant information from the sources. Note-taking is an important skill you can use whenever you need to capture information. Skilled note-takers know when to quote, paraphrase, or summarize an idea. They cite their sources carefully to make sure they do not commit plagiarism. Their notes are easy to organize and use later.

How can you make a convincing argument? You can take a position on almost any issue and support your position with a convincing argument. Learn the skills you need to become an efficient information-seeker and an expert note-taker.


**Vocabulary** - Click here to view the words to remember**

Exploration - Learning from the Web

Some fundamental research strategies can help you quickly gather accurate and reliable information. You can use these strategies with library catalogs, databases, and Web sites. Explore some Web sites about locating sources and taking notes. Learn how to gather information more effectively.

While you explore the following Web sites, think about the guiding questions. You may want to take notes to help you answer the questions. If you think of other questions about gathering information, keep those in mind too.

Guiding Questions
  • How can you get the most accurate hits from a keyword search?
  • What are some strategies to help you take more effective notes?
  • How can you make sure you do not commit plagiarism?

Web Sites
Locating Sources

Taking Notes


What to Know


This page summarizes some of the information from the Web sites you explored. This information helps you learn what you need to know for this activity about gathering information. You may want to take notes to help you remember the most important points. You can return to the Web sites for more exploration if you want to learn more.


Locating Resources

The single most important strategy for gathering information is to use a variety of sources, such as books, encyclopedias, databases, and the Internet. You can use keyword searches to find information in library catalogs, databases, and Web sites.

The key to getting the best results from any search program is the keyword. A good keyword is specific. It relates to your topic, and it does not relate to very many other topics. After you have good keywords, you can use some strategies to get better hit results. Remember that every search program is a little different. What works on one may not work on another. Even so, some strategies work on most search programs.

How to Get Fewer Hits
  • Use more keywords - Most search programs look for all the keywords you enter. When you enter more keywords, your hits should be more accurate. Of course, your keywords must be specific.
  • Use quotes - Most search programs treat more than one word in quotes as a single keyword. They return only sites that have the exact same words in the exact same order.
  • Use AND or a plus sign (+) - If you want to see only sites that have a keyword, you can put AND or + in front of the keyword. Note that some search programs assume you only want to see hits that have all keywords.
  • Use NOT or a minus sign (-) - If you do not want to see sites that have a keyword, you can put NOT or - in front of the keyword. Note that some search programs may ignore NOT or treat it as a regular word.

How to Get More Hits
  • Use fewer keywords - Just as more keywords give you fewer hits, fewer keywords give you more hits. Sometimes, you may not be able to find a lot of information on a topic. In those cases, you can use fewer keywords to get more hits.
  • Use OR - If you want to see all sources that have any of your keywords (even if they do not have all of your keywords), you can put OR between your keywords.

When you find a source, be sure to evaluate the information to verify that it is accurate and reliable. Evaluation involves judging a source against specific criteria. You can find many different lists of criteria, but they all have three characteristics in common. They all include criteria to make sure you have found a credible source of accurate and reliable information.

Taking Notes
When you use a source for your research, you cite the source in a bibliography. Citing all your sources is always important. A bibliography is a list of sources, usually arranged in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. Be sure to add sources to your bibliography as you take notes.

Five basic types of notes are:

  • Quote - The simplest way to take notes is to copy the author’s exact words. You should quote a source only when the exact words themselves are important. You may decide to quote a source because the author has special expertise or authority. You may also use a quotation when an idea would be very difficult to paraphrase or summarize adequately.
  • Paraphrase - Restate an author’s ideas using different words is often the best way to take notes. Paraphrasing an idea adequately requires some thought and caution. Changing a few words or rearranging words or sentences is not enough. An adequate paraphrase expresses someone else’s idea in the words you would have used if you had thought of the idea yourself. Paraphrasing an idea is an effective way to help you learn and remember the information you gather.
  • Summary - Explaining the main points and important details of another author’s ideas is usually the most efficient way to take notes. Writing an adequate summary often requires more thought and time than paraphrasing an idea. You might think of summarizing as paraphrasing a paraphrase. First, you put the author’s ideas in your own words. Then, you explain in your own words what the ideas mean to you and why they are important. In the long run, summarizing is usually more efficient than paraphrasing because it captures more information in fewer words. Summarizing a source is probably the most effective way to help you learn and remember the information you gather.
  • Facts and Data - Sometimes you simply want to record facts or data from a source. For example, you might note that “The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires.” You usually need not be concerned about paraphrasing or summarizing simple facts. You may also want to copy statistics, charts, or graphics from a source. You can often explain the meaning and importance of data in your own words, but sometimes the numbers or images are much more efficient. In these cases, you can effectively “quote” the data by copying the numbers or images and citing the source.
  • Original Ideas - While you are gathering information from sources, you may have ideas of your own. When you have an original idea, you should record it immediately. However, you should always make sure that the idea really is original. It may actually be a paraphrase or summary of a source. If the idea is original, record it so that it is clearly separate from your notes on any source.

You must cite all your sources, not just those that you quote. You must also cite any sources that you paraphrase or summarize during your research. Otherwise, you have plagiarized the author of the source.

Plagiarism is when you fail to cite a source you have quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. If you do not adequately paraphrase or summarize a source, you may plagiarize the author even if you cite the source.



Task

What to Do

Complete the following task to show what you have learned about gathering information. While you work through the task, think about whether you are achieving the goal. You may want to review an example of notes before you begin.

Task: Gather information to help you make a decision about your topic.
Goal: Show that you can gather accurate and reliable information by taking effective notes from credible sources.

See the example: Sources and Notes Example
1. Use the Sources and Notes worksheet to complete the following task - hand write notes and turn in to the substitute. Remember to put your name, date, title and website of your source.
2. Locate some credible sources on your issue. Try to locate a variety of sources such as books, encyclopedias, databases, and Web sites. One of the most reliable sources is through the Palm Beach Schools website. Use the links below to find sources.

The following resources can help you find credible Web sites with information on your issue:

3. Cite the sources you locate in the document. Your teacher may want you to use a specific format. These Web sites can help:

4. You MUST complete 1 source for each column today and turn it in to the substitute.
5. Check to be sure your website is written correctly.
6. Take notes on the sources you found.
7. Turn in to the substitute at the end of class.